Your Ultimate Big Bend Adventure

What if you could customize your Ultimate Big Bend Adventure?

TPU Race Director, Chris Herrera, has opened up a 3-stage race option for those who aren’t quite ready to swing the full 5-stage race. The new 81.9 mile race is a more manageable path to something truly epic that you thought you didn’t have the time, money or endurance for…and with extra days in Big Bend you can customize your adventure with add-on activities and tours, or just relax far, far away from it all.

All along, Chris’s primary motivation has been to introduce people to the unique and mostly unknown environment of Big Bend. It’s one of the most desolate and least visited regions of the country! Mostly because it’s so bloomin’ far from anything else… which is part of its great appeal to that subculture of people who love the eccentric, the wild and unknown. Here in the Big Bend there’s plenty of history, outdoor recreation and Texas culture; you just have to work a little harder to get here.

Let the rest of the world have the crowds at other races on the West Coast, in the Grand Canyon and overseas; some people seek the opposite.

TPU2018 has a cap at 30 participants and only 75 for the future. And now with the 3-stage option TPU is more do-able for more people. Some say our Big Bend local Jackson Wilbourn inspired the race option… after all he did the first 3 stages in leather hiking boots and no training - go Crocodile ‘Dundee’!

I’d like to give the new 3-stage race a pithy name, like “TPU Lite” but that would imply that it will be easy. It’s not easier; it’s just shorter than 163.5 miles. It’s “TPU Abridged.”

RD Chris has slightly modified the stages so that the ‘Abridgers’ get a full experience, with the first two days on the inner and outer loops of the (long extinct) Solitario volcano crater, and the third day being a sort of “crescendo” with a run through the Llano (a grassy plain) and a very challenging canyon descent and climb-out. Click here to check out the new stage profiles.

The new 3-stage race offers entry to those who have limits on their time or budgets. You still get to experience the magnificent Big Bend region, the amazing “dark sky” country, and notch a creditable 81.9-mile ultra. All 3- and 5 stage participants will start together on Monday morning, and complete stages 1-3, together, with all the camaraderie of camp at night.

The new 3-stage schedule will include all the kickoff fun of the longer race: the welcome happy hour and tour of the Museum of the Big Bend, the BBQ dinner with full staff, volunteers and participants, and pre-race medical and event check-in - all hosted by the City of Alpine, Texas. Also, the highlight is the the Star Party at McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis.

Anyone with more time can then sample some of the other pleasures of the area: river rafting in the Rio Grande (the adventure of a lifetime), horseback riding, ziplining, mountain biking, birding, golfing, air tours or maybe more hiking in Big Bend National Park next door. There is even some art culture to be found in Marfa, and military history at Fort Davis.

Since the inaugural TPU in 2015, intrepid souls from all over the world have come to discover the rugged race that is Trans-Pecos Ultra. There’s nothing easy about Big Bend; it’s remote, dry, hot, and nothing about the high desert is terribly hospitable toward human beings.

The full 5 day race features parts of Big Bend rarely seen and of course the 56-mile final overnight stage, which is an incredible star-lit experience…. plenty deserving of a custom made belt buckle too!

If you’ve looked longingly at TPU but thought you couldn’t quite swing it, think again! The new 3-Stager could be the fast track to your Big Bend dream. For more information on the 3-stage or 5 stage adventure visit our Registration Details page, or contact the race director, Chris Herrera at 432-294-5284 or email [email protected].

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Any of these add-on adventures would make an already-fabulous trip to west Texas even better! Contact the race director for logistics and suggestions.

River rafting https://bigbendfarflung.com/river-trips/

http://angellexpeditions.com/river-trips/

Horseback riding http://www.lajitasstables.com

Mountain Biking https://www.desertsportstx.com

Ziplining https://www.lajitasgolfresort.com/default.aspx?pg=zipline

Birding tours https://www.birdingbigbend.net/trips

Golf https://visitbigbend.com/golf/

Air tours http://rioaviation.com

Astronomy https://mcdonaldobservatory.org/visitors

Big Bend National Park https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm

Fort Davis National Historic site https://www.nps.gov/foda/index.htm

Art scene in Marfa https://visitmarfa.com/arts/